CHAPTER artillery, among them James Monroe, then a lieutenant, afterward President of the United States. XXXV. Had the mi1776. litia lower down been able to cross, the success might have been still more complete. Washington recrossed the Delaware with his prisoners, who were sent to Philadelphia, and paraded through the streets in a sort of triumph. The British, astonished at such a stroke from an enemy whom they reckoned already subdued, broke up their encampments along the Delaware, and retired to Princeton. Washington thereupon reoccupied Trenton, where he was speedily joined by three thousand six hundred Pennsylvania militia, relieved, by the withdrawal of the enemy, from Dec. 31. their late duty of guarding the Delaware. At this moment the term of service of the New England regiments expired; but the persuasions of their officers, and a bounty of ten dollars, induced them to remain for six weeks longer. Alarmed by the surprise at Trenton, and the signs of new activity in the American army, Howe detained Cornwallis, then just on the point of embarking for England, and sent him to take the command at Princeton. Re-enforcements came up from Brunswick, and Cornwallis advanced in force upon Trenton. Washington 1777. occupied the high ground on the eastern bank of a small Jan. 2. river which enters the Delaware at that town. The bridge and the ford above it were guarded by artillery. After a sharp cannonade, the British kindled their fires and encamped for the night. Washington was now in a dangerous predicament. He had about five thousand men, half of them militia, but a few days in camp. Could such an army stand the attack of British regulars, equal in numbers, and far superior in discipline and equipments? To attempt XXXV. to cross the Delaware in the face of the enemy would CHAPTER be more hazardous than a battle. Washington, according to his custom, called a council of war. The large 1777. force which Cornwallis evidently had with him led to the inference that the corps in the rear could not be very strong. The bold plan was adopted of gaining that rear, beating up the enemy's quarters at Princeton, and, if fortune favored, falling on his stores and baggage at Brunswick. In execution of this plan, the American baggage was silently sent off down the river to Burlington; and, after replenishing the camp fires, and leaving small parties to throw up intrenchments within hearing of the enemy's sentinels, the army marched off about midnight by a circuitous route toward Princeton. Three British regiments had spent the night in that town; and by sunrise, when the Americans entered it, two of Jan. 3. them were already on their march for Trenton. The leading regiment was attacked and broken; but it presently rallied, regained the Trenton road, and continued its march to join Cornwallis. General Mercer, who had led this attack with a column of militia, was not very well. supported; he fell mortally wounded while attempting to bring up his men to the charge, and was taken prisoner. The marching regiment in the rear, after a sharp action, gave way, and fled toward Brunswick. The regiment in the town occupied the college, and made some show of resistance; but some pieces of artillery being brought to bear upon them, they soon surrendered. Three hundred prisoners fell into the hands of the Americans, besides a severe loss to the enemy in killed and wounded. The American loss was about a hundred, including several valuable officers. When Cornwallis heard the roar of the cannon at Princeton, he penetrated at once the whole of Wash CHAPTER ington's plan. Alarmed for his magazines at BrunsXXXV. wick, he hastily put his troops in motion, and by the 1777. time the Americans were ready to leave Princeton, he At was again close upon them. Again Washington was in great danger. His troops were exhausted; all had been one night without sleep, and some of them longer; many had no blankets; others were barefoot; all were very thinly clad. It was necessary to give over the attack upon Brunswick, and to occupy some more defensible ground, where the troops could be put under cover. Morristown, on the American right, were the skeletons of three regiments, detached, as already mentioned, from the northern army; also the troops sent forward by Heath, but stopped on the reception of Washington's countermand. Some militia had also joined them. The high ground in that vicinity offered many strong positions. As Cornwallis would hardly venture to cross the Delaware with an enemy in his rear, Washington concluded to march for Morristown, where he intrenched himself. Not anxious to continue this winter campaign, Cornwallis retired to New Brunswick. The parties sent out by Washington to assail and harass the British quarters were eagerly joined by the inhabitants, incensed by the plunder and ravage of the British and Hessians, against whom even Howe's protections had proved a very uncertain defense. Plundering, into which soldiers very easily fall, was by no means confined to the British. Washington was again obliged to issue stern orders against “the infamous practice of plundering the inhabitants under pretense that they are Tories." Another proclamation was presently issued, requiring Jan. 25. all those who had taken British protections either to remove within the enemy's lines, or else to repair to the nearest general officer, give up their protections, and take XXXV. an oath of allegiance to the United States. Objections CHAPTER were made to this proclamation, and one of the New Jersey delegates in Congress raised some question about it, 1777. on the ground that it was an interference with state rights, allegiance being due to the state, and not to the confederacy; but Congress sustained Washington in the course he had taken. ter. Huts were erected at Morristown, and there the main body of the American army remained during the winThe right was at Princeton, under Putnam; the left in the Highlands, under Heath; cantonments were established at various places along this extended line. Skirmishes occasionally took place between advanced parties, but for six months no important movement was made upon either side. Washington, busy in organizing the new army, was, in fact, very weak. Recruits came in but slowly; and detachments of militia, principally from the Eastern States, had to be called out for temporary service. These were judiciously posted, so as to make the best possible show; but, for several months, there was little more than the shadow of an army. The enemy, made cautious by their losses, fortunately were ignorant of Washington's real situation. The strong ground occupied by the Americans, and the winter, which had now fairly set in, seemed to forbid the hope of successful attack. In skirmishes, the Americans were generally successful; the British quarters were straitened, their supplies were cut off, and they were reduced to great distress for forage and fresh provisions. The recovery of the Jerseys by the fragments of a defeated army, which had seemed just before on the point of dissolution, gained Washington a high reputation, not at home only, but in Europe also, where the progress of the campaign had been watched with CHAPTER great interest, and where the disastrous loss of New XXXV. York and the retreat through the Jerseys had given a 1777. general impression that the Americans would not be able to maintain their independence. The recovery of the Jerseys produced a reaction. The American general was extolled as a Fabius, whose prudence availed his country not less than his valor. At home, also, these successes had the best effect. The recruiting service, which before had been almost at a stand, began again to revive, and considerable progress was presently made in organizing the new army. The extensive powers which Congress had intrusted to Washington were exercised energetically indeed, but with the greatest circumspection, and a single eye to the public good. The state appointments of officers for the new army, too often the result of favoritism, were rectified so far as prudence would justify; and, by commissions in the sixteen additional battalions, Washington was enabled to provide for such meritorious officers as had been overlooked in the new appointments. A great clamor having been raised against Dr. Morgan's management of the hospital department, he was summarily removed from office, and Dr. Shippen, his colleague in the medical school at Philadelphia, appointed in his place. The whole department was reorganized: Dr. Craik was appointed Shippen's assistant; Dr. Rush, afterward greatly distinguished in his profession, an active politician, who had signed the Declaration of Independence as one of the new delegates from Pennsylvania, was made surgeon general for the middle department. The small-pox had been a terrible scourge to the American troops, and Washington caused all the new recruits to be inoculated and carried through the disorder. This change in the medical staff was extended to the |